ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the characteristics of VP1 gene hypervariable region in hu-man enterovirus type 68(HEV68)strains isolated in China. Methods Nucleotide sequences of the VP1 gene in the Chinese strains and strains isolated in other countries were aligned by using Clustal W in the MEGA6 program. The phylogenetic trees were constructed by using Neighbor-Joining(NJ)method in the MEGA6 program. Sequence of the amino acids encoded by that region was analyzed by compared with that of the standard strain Fermon. Results A total of 80 strains of EV68 had been isolated in China by the end of 2015. Most of the mutations occurred in BC and DE loops. The mutation sites lied in the VP1 gene of Chi-nese isolates were at 83,89,91,94,96,97,98,102,109,139,141,142,143,144 and 147. Glycine was missing from most of the amino acid sequences encoded by the VP1 gene of Chinese strains. The phylo-genetic analysis indicated that 53 and 21 EV68 strains isolated in China belonged to B and C clades,respec-tively. Conclusion Compared with the standard strain Fermon,the Chinese strains changed a lot in BC-loop and DE-loop,which were associated with the antigenicity and virulence of EV68. The EV68 strains iso-lated in China belonged to B and C clades.